Meet the Rockwallers
by Commander Argus
Summary: The Sequel to Redeemable? Bonnie brings her superpowered boyfriend home for the holidays.
1. Chapter 1  going away

**Meet the Rockwallers**

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The sequel to _**Redeemable?**_

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Bonnie was not looking forward to it. Not in the least. Not one little bit.

It wasn't as if she could actually avoid it any longer, though.

Not that she didn't try, mind you, it was just that she eventually came to the point where too many questions were remaining unanswered. Too many subtle, and some not so subtle clues were there.

She was going to have to tell her parents she had a boyfriend.

It wasn't only that. Before, when she had been dating Brick Flagg, her parents took a very hands-off approach to their daughter's relationship. For one thing, her mother and Brick's were actually quite close friends and neither could quite come up with the notion that either of their beloved children would do anything untoward and, as fate would have it, their faith in their children actually was somewhat well founded since the two of them never actually ventured past second base.

Bonnie never intended mentioning that it was only at her insistence that things never progressed beyond that point. Brick was a good guy, she had to admit, but he was a normal straight male and being such was not totally responsible for his actions. That he abided by his then-girlfriend's wishes proved that he was ultimately a good kid.

He learned very quickly that she did not find begging very sexy in a man.

The main problem now was that her mother still thought of her as the little fifteen year old ice-princess she played when she was in high school. That had come to an abrupt conclusion when she met her current paramour, in fact on the very day they first introduced themselves to each other. Perhaps it was something chemical between them, or some force that brought the two of them together. More likely it was just giving into the feelings and sensations that were always there, but had been shunted aside when she was home, and therefore in the emotional control of her family.

They were together for most of her freshman year at Go City University, having met not long after the first semester started. It was easy to keep things just between the two of them at the time. She still lived in the Freshmen dorms and he was just a guy she happened to be dating. That didn't bear any special reporting to her family, which, at the time, suited Bonnie just fine. The last thing she wanted was to have her private life put under a microscope by her mother or put up to ridicule by her older sisters. For a time she was able to pretend that she was making a new life for herself in Go City, away from the smothering embrace of her closest relatives.

The summer that followed was far tougher than she expected. He took her on a trip to the west coast for a couple weeks and that at least she could explain as being a trip with 'friends,' but once that was over there was only the choice of actually moving in with him or heading home since students couldn't stay in the dorms all summer unless they were attending a summer session. The decision was made more difficult when he actually offered to let her move in with him.

That was tempting…very tempting. Only, she was just nineteen at the time and despite the rather physical nature of their relationship, she just wasn't quite ready for that at the time. She wasn't quite ready for the relative finality of actually living with him.

Then too, there was the problem of where he lived. It wasn't that it was a bachelor pad. Well, actually it was, right down to the beat up, duct tape patched couch in the den, but that really wasn't a problem. Nobody would ever see them on that couch and it was actually pretty comfortable. No, a twenty-one year old rising senior could be expected to live like that.

Bonnie just didn't want to live in a tower shaped like the word "Go."

Maybe if she was dating a normal guy, one who couldn't shrink himself and anything in contact with him down to on centimeters tall, one who lived in an actual apartment, one who had normal colored skin when he wasn't using a special holographic projector to look like an average, if rather tall young adult. Maybe if he was simply Mervin Godfrey, and not he purple clad hero know as Mego, then she would have actually considered it. His place, as cluttered and…male as it was, was a darn sight better than her shabby single dorm room.

In the end, she decided she was secure enough in their relationship that she could return home, perhaps for the last significant amount of time. It turned out she was just plain wrong about the whole thing. Almost from the moment she put her bags down in her old room things reverted back to how they had been before. Her mother, as if she possessed some uncanny sense for such things, immediately started going through her belongings, ostensibly to help her daughter put her things away, instantly finding her birth control pills. That launched her into another lecture about how young women were supposed to act with boys, and that her youngest daughter should have no reason to take such things.

It really was like she was just fifteen all over again.

The worst of it, though, was missing Mervin over that span of almost three months.

When school resumed that fall, she started working on him. It was subtle things at first, like getting him to get a decent haircut. That turned out to be a more significant hurdle than she first thought, since his shaggy mop was tied into his image as Mego. To that she just rolled her eyes, since his 'secret identity' was probably one of the worst kept secrets in the history of Go City.

That done, she set herself on the path for her next goal…getting him out of that tower and into a proper home; one she could live in as well.

It turned out that phase was much easier than the first.

Mervin and his brothers (and technically their sister as well, but she didn't figure into the equation) still owned their childhood home. It was the same place where there had once been a treehouse, the one they had all been in when the rainbow comet hit. For the family, that was the last straw for them in that home. Only two years earlier they lost their adoptive parents, leaving them in the care of the oldest sibling, Herman, or as he was better know, Hego. When they were given the chance to move into the "Go Tower" they didn't have to be asked twice, leaving the rather nice home vacant in the intervening years.

Bonnie had already been there once, back when she was trying to figure out where the mysterious young man lived. Somebody apparently had been maintaining the place, or at least the main part of the yard. The part of the yard where the tree still stood had been let grow wild, letting it merge back into the small stand of woods the property butted up against.

Mervin tended to be a little better adjusted emotionally than his siblings, so it didn't take much convincing for him to take the old house over. With his couch safely tucked away in his 'personal space' upstairs, Bonnie was more than happy to set up housekeeping with him. She officially moved in with him on her twentieth birthday.

The only problem was, her keeping such a major change in her life a secret from her parents was something she never was able to truly consider. It was clear that one of two things was bound to happen, at least eventually. Either she was going to have to bring him home to meet them, or they were going to show up on her doorstep unannounced one day. She even, at one point, considered maintaining a dorm room at the school, though such an idea was quickly discarded since they would eventually come to see their daughter and find an empty room, plus the campus housing authority would not allow it if they discovered she was maintaining a home off-campus. The university was one of the largest in the country and on-campus housing was at a premium.

Not that she couldn't convince her father to pay for it.

So, as the holidays loomed, she steeled herself for the inevitable. At least bringing him home to Middleton was going to be on her own terms, for the most part. She would simply show up at the front door, Mervin in tow, introducing him as her boyfriend.

Their living arrangements…including the sleeping situation, would only come up if it became completely necessary. The double standard she lived with regarding her two sisters was still in full force. They could have their boyfriends over all the time, or disappear for days with them and her mother never said a single word, yet when she suspected Bonnie had slept with her date the night of the Senior Prom…

Oh yes, it was going to be fun. Fun like a root canal. Fun like having to room with Kim Possible at cheer camp. Fun like being glued by the butt to the same one-time cheerleader. Her mother doted on her, at least on the surface. What nobody really knew was just how controlling the elder Rockwaller could be. She was the queen in her castle, the seemingly perky matron with her perfect little girls.

Somehow she figured she could deal with them. Somehow she could get past the point where they all figured out she not only was sleeping with Mervin, but living with him, perhaps permanently. Connie and Lonnie were going to be merciless on that point, perhaps being the first to actually put all the pieces together.

Her frown deepened as they crossed the border that separated Nebraska from Colorado. Sometimes she liked disconnecting her seatbelt and at least holding onto his arm when they drove together, but for the most part she stuck to her own seat. Driving all the way from Go City to Middleton was a pretty long haul, but somehow it felt like delaying the inevitable, at least for a little while. It took two days to cover that distance, so it was like a mini-vacation for the two of them.

Mervin was developing a sixth sense of his own when it came to Bonnie, though he really didn't have to rely on it to tell her mood, even in the darkness of his Scion. "You're being awfully quiet."

"Just thinking."

"Oh." He turned his attention back to the road ahead. The sides of the road had a blanket of snow, bracketed by gray slush, but at least it wasn't snowing at the moment. She glanced over at him and did manage a slight smile. He was so different than Brick. The big quarterback, bless his heart, would have simply plowed ahead, wondering what was wrong with her, or, more likely, would try doing something to cheer her up. Problem was, that was usually something along the lines of trying to kiss her, or worse. Mervin was so much more intelligent, to the point he knew when to say something, and when to shut up.

Still, they both had been quiet for a long time, perhaps since the sun went down on the second day of their trek. It seemed she needed more from his company than his close proximity, and not the kind they shared in the motel room the night before either.

"I'm just worried how they're going to react to you, that's all."

"Oh, come on. How bad can it be?"

"Mervin…" She put a hand on his arm. She learned the first couple months they were together he couldn't stand for anyone, including her, calling him 'Merv' for short. He was just one of those people put on the Earth who used whole names. At least he called her Bonnie, and not by her more formal "Bonne," or the detestable "Bon-Bon." "You haven't met my parents. You haven't even spoken more than two words to them on the phone." She rolled her eyes, a move lost in the darkness of the car. That took a little explaining as to why a male was answering the phone at her place.

He shrugged, a move that only registered since her hand was still on his arm. "I'm sure they'll love me. I don't have to let on what I actually do for a living."

"Well, that's the prob. They're going to want to know, and I don't think they're going to settle for 'full time student.'"

"Why not? It's the truth, isn't it? It's not like I planned on making a career of the superhero thing."

"No." She sat back in her seat again, releasing his arm. "You're not going to take Herman up on the offer to run the BN next to campus either. I am _not_ going to spend my life with a fast-food jockey."

"Never said I was even considering it, though it seems to be okay with my sister-in-law."

"It's okay because she's not like me. I have higher standards, and Herman is a district manager now. Much higher on the food chain Food Chain, but that's not my point."

"I could always say I'm in Law Enforcement Support."

Bonnie crinkled her nose. "Like, not! That just sounds like you're a dispatcher or a jailhouse janitor…or worse. I said I have my standards."

Mervin gave the radio another twist, trying to find something in range besides a country-western station. To someone who had lived his whole life in one of the world's largest cities, he pretty much felt even Denver was a small town.

Bonnie, on the other hand, was a little ticked he hadn't sprung for a satellite radio.

"Look, Bonnie, it's just over Christmas, then we'll head back home. What's a couple nights anyway. If things get…awkward, I'll just get a hotel room nearby."

"Oh no. I've spent way too many years with Connie and Lonnie parading their air-headed boyfriends in front of the family not to show off the real deal."

"They can't be that bad."

Bonnie made a rude noise. "Oh yes they can. Sure, they're hotness, but they are sooooo stupid. I want them to see what a real guy is like, one who's good looking, smart and a hero to boot." She stopped, smiling wickedly. There were certain attributes Mervin had in common with those men, but she wasn't going to bring it up.

He was positively beaming. If there was one thing he loved as much as Bonnie, it was himself. Compliments could get you anywhere with Mervin Godfrey. There were more reasons he was called Mego than just using the first two letters of his names.

"Okay. Just hope they let us share a room. They're not old-fashioned or something, are they?"

"Mom isn't. No, her problem is she can't quite grasp the concept that I've grown up, but she's let my sisters carry on in the house all the time. I won't take no for an answer. Either we share a room at the house, or both of us are getting a hotel room, and I don't mean some dime-a-dozen room at Middleton Motor Lodge either."

"So noted. Uh, you said your Mom isn't…what about your father?"

"Daddy is a whole other issue." She said, the frown returning.

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Bonnie Rockwaller, Mego and all characters from Kim Possible © Disney


	2. Chapter 2  Homecoming

**Meet the Rockwallers**

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Chapter 2: Homecoming

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"It's getting awfully late, Bonnie." Mervin griped as they passed the carved and painted sign welcoming them to the city of Middleton, Colorado. "You think we should just get us a room and show up tomorrow morning?"

She had been lost in thought over the last couple hours of their ride and had to think a couple moments about what Mervin had asked. "Uh, no. We said we'd be here tonight, so they'll be expecting us."

Mervin glanced at the clock built into his DVD player. "It's almost eleven, you sure they're even going to be up?"

"They're not _that _old. Besides, Mother isn't going to miss _The Late Show_, even if it is a rerun for the holiday. Not to mention, she'll be waiting just to see 'this guy' I'm supposedly bringing home with me."

"What did you tell her?" He glanced at himself in the rear view mirror, fussing with his hair for a moment.

"Quit that, Mervin. You look fine."

"Hey, can I help it if I want to look my best? What people think about me is important, you know."

"You look okay, for a guy who's been in a car most of the day. Just…amp down all the 'me' stuff for a bit, okay? The last thing I want is for Mother to think I'm dating somebody who's just into himself." She crossed her arms, remembering the fight they had a few days ago over that issue.

He wanted to cross his own arms and hunch over in his usual snit when Bonnie got like that. It wasn't like it was all about him, all the time. It was supposed to be about the two of them. He knew he was perhaps one of the most self-centered people on the planet, most of the time, but he was honestly trying to change that.

Wisely, he kept his mouth shut for the moment. If there was anyone who could give him a run for the money on that account, it was Miss Bonnie Rockwaller. Somehow, over the course of the last year, he had come to realize that, together, they sort of canceled each other out, though, for the most part is was simply that they were joining forces.

It was all about them.

By the time he reached adulthood he had pretty much resigned himself to the fact that he was likely going to live life pretty much alone. He had been out with a number of girls, but never for much more than a single date. Most of the women he liked simply could not get past his nature, and he was not about to change for any of them. They were going to have to like him for him, or that was it. It was his way or the highway.

The fact that he always wanted to be the center of attention didn't help matters much.

Their relationship came as a huge surprise to him. Bonnie not only understood his needs, but fed off them as well. He always thought it would be the other way around. There would be a girl who worshiped the ground he walked on and doted on him, making him the most important figure in her life. That was just the way of things and he was willing to wait until he met just such a woman.

At first it seemed like their attraction was purely physical. That in itself was a big shock to him, at least on his part, especially when he started getting to know her. He was tall, thin, and to hear other people tell it, seriously introverted. All of her previous relations, with the exception of one guy she wanted to have a relationship with, were large, strong men. Somehow it seemed she would have staked her claim to a member of the football team, and that wasn't much of a stretch. Bonnie certainly had the looks to attract that sort of suitor.

Nothing was quite so shocking to him as the fact that they ended up sleeping together the day they first met.

They said opposites attract. Instead, he found he had fallen in love with a woman who was much more of a kindred spirit, and it wasn't just the physical nature of their relationship. Well, there was that. Sometimes he would look over at her, sleeping in their bed and he would literally pinch himself. It wasn't just that she was a smoking hottie either. Herman and the twins all liked her as well, though he did have to endure a great deal of teasing from the latter two, especially when he was still living in the tower and she would come over for the night. Then again, they were just teenagers, and as such, given to bouts of immature kidding.

They had a bumpy go of it right at the start, but that had much more to do with some of the baggage they brought into their relationship. It seemed possible to him that Bonnie was quite capable of landing any guy she wanted, but keeping him was a whole other ball of wax. After her relationship with that high school quarterback soured, she spent quite a long time, relatively speaking, going on one or two dates with guys and never having anything come of them. It was easy to gloss over those particular failures as the result of there being a lack of spark between them, though he suspected her often abrasive personality had much more to do with it.

It was a point of pride for him that their affair had started off, not with either of them hitting on the other for a date, but with just some simple talking. Sure, that talking led to kissing, then to frenzied undressing, but the conversation had gone on for hours. The grand finale of that meeting actually had very little to do with what they had talked about. Whispering sweet nothings to each other had come later, much later.

He also allowed himself a little knowing grin every now and again that he had actually found something more important in his life than himself, and he had no illusions about the certain irony around the fact it made him feel good about himself.

When he first admitted his feelings for Bonnie to his older brother, Herman asked him a particular question: Was he falling in love with her for him, or for her. It took him a while to ponder that particular query out. Then, slowly, it all came into focus.

It was both. Yes, she was incredibly sexy, intelligent, athletic and made him feel good in very many ways. There was no denying he loved her for that, there was no getting around it, but there was something else. He also loved her so much he knew he would lay his life down for her, that he wanted to make her as happy as she made him. Herman asked him that, thinking he might simply be in 'lust' with her, rather than actually falling for her, but he later came to understand that it really took both sides for what he was feeling to be complete.

Of course, he never would have consented to having her move in with him in the first place if that were not true. It was actually strange that, at least in official terms, that hadn't happened until they moved back into his childhood home, considering she used every excuse she could think of to spend the night with him, and not always just to be with him, but to get away from that terrible little dorm room she was forced to live in during her first term.

Then again, he was starting to consider himself something of a stallion. It didn't matter that she was the only woman he had been with that way in his life. He had a pretty good idea what he was doing by that point, and always liked his ego stroked by having her say so.

He knew he pleased her, and that pleased him, and that made him feel good about himself, knowing that he was rising above his deep-rooted self-centered nature.

It still was all about him. Then again, he _was _Mego.

Abandoning his normal driving habits for a moment, he reached across the small gulf between their bucket seats and put one of his large hands on top of hers. She responded with a slight smile, twining her fingers with his. He favored her with a soft smile as well.

"Kinda makes all this that much more official, doesn't it?"

Bonnie's smile faded slightly. "I think there's only one thing left to make all this official." She let that comment hang in the air. Neither one of them had even breathed the "M" word yet, even as much time as they spent just talking to each other. They lived in the same house, slept in the same bed, but when it came to that certain commitment, they quickly shied away from it. That didn't keep her from hinting from time to time.

Mervin didn't know what to think about that particular idea. For one thing, he was just shy of turning twenty-two, and in his book, that was still a little young to consider marriage and family. It was one thing to be playing house with his girlfriend, it was another to make a commitment that was supposed to last many years, if not their entire lives. It didn't matter that, by that point, he could not even consider what life would be like without her.

"Some of this is starting to look familiar." He observed.

Bonnie shot him a glance. Mervin had been to Middleton exactly one time in his life, and that trip had been a direct flight with the Go Jet to a certain house not all that far from Bonnie's. How he could recognize any of the city in the night time, from ground level, she didn't know.

"Is your house close to that Possible girl's?" He asked, releasing her hand so he could make the turn into her subdivision.

"Not far. She lives on the edge of the neighborhood, where some of the snootier houses were built. Her fam is actually kind of loaded, considering what her parents do."

Mervin curled his nose a bit. "Her house wasn't all that nice, though all I remember was that horrid little yellow kitchen we were all holed up in."

"Ugh. To think the Possibles have all that money and they can't spring for a really modern kitchen, or at least paint it something besides marigold yellow. You should see her room too. It's like they shoved her off in an attic." She caught herself. Besides any real discussion of taking their relationship to the next level, talk of Kim Possible was usually taboo between them. She glared for half a moment, until she recalled that her former rival was pretty much the sum of his experience in the small city.

"Worst thing was he father. He just kept sticking his head in the door and glaring at us. Then, do you know what he called us?"

"I can imagine. He thinks he is _sooooo_ funny."

"He called us 'Circus folk.' Can you believe that? Me, a famous superhero, and he thinks I'm dressed up like a clown?"

Bonnie smiled at him again. "Mervin, uh, you've got purple skin and you were probably wearing your Team Go uniform. That's not exactly normal, even for them."

Her finely tapered fingers almost went to her lips. Was she actually standing up for Kim's father? Why not? She really didn't have anything against him, except the fact he was just another particularly square father in his late forties. He at least seemed to be a loving, attentive father.

Shaking her head, she cleared her thoughts. It wasn't time to be thinking of people's shortcomings. The time was coming for her to put on a show.

"Hey, I was just thinking. You said your Mom likes to watch the late show. I don't think it's going to be on, since it's Sunday. You sure you don't think they might already be in bed?"

She held up her hands. "The subject is closed. We're going there tonight, and that's final. Daddy usually would be in bed by this time, but since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, he doesn't have to be up to go to his contractor business. He might be in bed by now, just out of habit, but Mother isn't going to pass up the chance to welcome me back home." She patted her purse, where her tiny folding cell phone rested. "If we don't show up tonight, she's going to call every five minutes."

That much he was certain of. The woman had called her no less than five times during their trek from Go City, visibly making her daughter upset the first day when she explained they were not going to be able to make the entire thousand plus mile drive in one day. It had actually only been about an hour since she had called the last time and only his reassurance they were still about fifty miles away, relayed over the phone by Bonnie, had kept her from calling again.

"Don't get your tidy whiteys up in a bunch, Mervin. We've gotta do this. We'll get back home to our own routine on the flipside. As far as I'm concerned, we can hit the road the morning after Christmas, and we can take our time getting back." She tip-toed her fingers up his arm, adding a slightly sly smile. "We can do things that will make both of us glisten, and you know how much I like it when we glisten."

"Okay, Bonnie. You win. Maybe it won't be so bad tonight. We'll just say our hellos, and get ready for bed. I can't see us sitting up half the night yapping with them. I do need a good eight hours if I'm going to look my best!"

She shook her head again. "I told you already. You look fine."

He squinted through the windshield. "So, where is your house, anyway?"

"In a suburb of Go City. It's not my house we're going to. Not any more. It's just where my parents live and my lazy sisters crash when they're not out with some guy."

"I just don't get it. Aren't they older than you?"

"Yeah, by three and five years."

"What the heck are they doing still living at home anyway?"

"Like I said, they are so lazy. They're just waiting for one of those idiots to propose to them, like that's ever going to happen. Connie thinks she's so smart and Lonnie thinks she's so pretty, but they don't realize nobody's going to buy the cow when they're giving the milk away free."

Mervin smiled at that. Oddly enough, he had never seen a picture of the older Rockwaller sisters, but his mental image of them was somewhat less than savory, considering how many times Bonnie found ways of referring to them as 'cows' or 'heifers' or some other colorful description for bovine barnyard creatures. He was actually having a hard time reconciling how the same parents could produce something like that, then turn around and have an angel like Bonnie.

She pointed to a modest home that looked like a split level, but was actually a one-level home with a downstairs garage. "That's it. Casa de Rockwaller."

"I don't see any cars." He remarked as he turned into the drive.

"Mother's car will be inside the garage, right beside Daddy's work pickup. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if my sibs were off somewhere with their boyfriends tonight."

He took a deep breath and got out, stretching slowly after the long drive, then checked the settings on his 'watch.' It was actually much more than a timepiece. Special holographic projectors built into it made him look reasonably normal, hiding his lavender skin and claret hair. The only hint that he was something more than just a tall, skinny guy from a huge Midwest city was his purple eyes. That in itself had something to do with the projectors messing with his vision, though she secretly suspected he liked having at least one trait besides his height that made him stand out in a crowd.

They both turned as the front door of the home flew open.

"Where's my little Bon-Bon?" they both heard as a svelte woman in her early fifties emerged, her arms held wide.

He rolled his eyes as she rushed past him as if he wasn't there, crushing her youngest daughter in a fierce hug.

_Here we go_, he thought.

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Bonnie Rockwaller, Mego and all characters from Kim Possible © Disney


	3. Chapter 3 Mother

**Meet the Rockwallers**

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Chapter 3: Mother

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Bonnie was fighting for all she was worth, or at least that was how she felt. It was the same every time she came home, whether it was after being away for months at school, or just overnight. Sometimes it wasn't even that long, like the time the Rockwaller matron showed up at Mount Middleton as an impromptu chaperone. When was the woman ever going to realize that her daughter simply did not like being hugged, except in private by her boyfriend. Personal space was personal space!

Finally extricating herself from the woman's embrace, she motioned toward the tall young man who was busying himself getting their luggage out of the back of the Psion. "Mother, I'd like you to meet someone." She took her mother's hand and led her over to him. "This is Mervin Patrick Godfrey. Mervin, this is my mother, Veronica Rockwaller."

Mrs. Rockwaller's bubbly demeanor seemed to dissappear like she had some kind of internal switch. She simply extended a hand and shook Mervin's. "I'm so pleased to meet you, Merv. Bon-Bon has told me so much about you."

His eyebrow arched up slightly as he looked past her at his girlfriend. Bonnie silently shook her head and mouthed the words _no I haven't_. That much at least was true, or she would have started with telling her that the _only_ person that could _ever_ get away with calling him by that diminutive was herself. She could almost feel him groaning inwardly, fighting back the urge to correct the mother of his love.

If Veronica Rockwaller noticed their exchange, she didn't let on. Instead, she looked him up and down, as if trying to get her bearings about the tall young man. Then she simply stood back while Mervin tried picking up their gear…all of it. There wasn't all that much, but neither Rockwaller was making the slightest move to help with any of it. "I know the two of you must be tired, I've got the spare room all set up for you, young man."

Bonnie wasn't sure whether she wanted to roll her eyes or scream. It wasn't like she was planning to 'wake the neighbors' with him that night, but they were at least going to share the same bed. "Mother." Bonnie took her by the arm. "Mervin doesn't need the spare room, he's going to be staying with me." She tensed up slightly, waiting for the inevitable.

The older woman gave her daughter a look like she saw naked mole rats crawling on her shoulders. "Bon-bon, do you think that's appropriate?"

"I don't see why not."

"But dear, what would people think." She leaned over to whisper. "It doesn't seem…natural."

"Mother! I'm willing to bet Connie and Lonnie are in their rooms right now with those things they call boyfriends. Why would that be any different for me? I'm twenty, you know, not thirteen."

"No, neither of your sisters are at home right now, and really, Bon-Bon, I think you have been watching that silly program too much. These things just aren't done."

"What silly program?"

"Oh, you know, the one where that silly girl goes to live with that gay man, the one who has that really funny friend, and the middle-aged woman who drinks too much?"

Bonnie stopped in her tracks, her mouth hanging open for a second. It actually took a couple seconds for what her mother had said to fully register in her brain. "Wait, you think Mervin's…whoa, so not!"

"Of course he is, dear. Why else would you bring him home?"

Bonnie looked past her mother, at the tall young man struggling with her bags. "I told you when you called for the umpteenth time, he's my boyfriend."

"Oh, I thought you meant that like you say Miss Matthews is your girlfriend, Bon-Bon. You know, a friend, who's a boy…"

"No, Mother. He's my boyfriend-boyfriend. As in my significant other, as in the guy I'm dating," She shifted into almost a whisper, "the guy I'm…you know."

Mrs. Rockwaller stopped in her tracks as well as Mervin dropped their bags on the stoop so he could feed them through the door. "You mean he's not gay?"

"How could you even think that, Mother? Mervin's not gay, not the least. He's as straight as they come. Trust me, I know."

She shook her head, trying not to think about how her baby daughter would 'know,' but just looked at him. "He's…not what I would expect, not after Brick, and all those other boys."

"So, he's not a jock. There's a whole lot more to him than that kind of guy anyway, a whole lot that I'm in love with."

The bubbly demeanor switched back on. "Now, there, Bon-Bon. Okay, of course he can stay in your room. If you say he's your boyfriend, then who am I to say anything. Don't want you going all to pieces on me, now would we."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and started up the sidewalk, growling softly with her arms straight, her fists clenched. Why on Earth would Mother make the assumption that any guy with her who didn't fall into the narrow spectrum of 'guys she once dated' have to be gay? She'd never hung around any men like that, though there were plenty of them at GCU. It just wasn't in her nature. If she wanted a 'girlfriend' to dish with, she would hang around with another female. She was so not going to spill her inner most secrets to any other male, not simply because they had romantic feelings for other guys. What was up with that?

What's more, had she been convinced of that? Was her quick capitulation that they would share a room some strange idea the older woman had that would protect her youngest's virtue? Was she thinking the two of them were having some weird pajama party like some women liked to have? Bonnie had been to plenty of those in her tween and early teen years, but never once allowed another to sleep in a bed with her, or even too close to her on the floor. It was yet another of her 'personal space' issues.

The thought of a bunch of girls wearing everything from flannel pajamas to lacy teddies, giggling all night and generally talking about things they wouldn't know about for years simply disgusted her. She was the top of the food chain and she wasn't going to lower herself to such low standards.

It was almost enough for her to scream something rather unmistakable at the top of her lungs at about three in the morning, whether Mervin was prompting such a reaction in her or not, just to make it clear to everyone else in the house exactly what the nature of their relationship was. Almost, but not quite. That wasn't her thing anyway, being more prone to quite moans and more visible…

Her mind was ripped away from what was actually a quite pleasant thought when she stepped through the door to her childhood home. The sights, the sounds, the smells, they all took her back to something she thought she left behind when she loaded up her Mustang Convertible and headed toward Go City a year and a half ago. In an instant she went from Bonnie Rockwaller, Deputy Captain of the GCU Cheer Squad, top twenty percent student and lover of Mervin 'Mego' Godfrey, to just Bon-Bon, the perpetually fifteen year-old who never quite measured up to her family's expectations, be it leader of the High School cheerleaders, winner of the talent competition or the power behind the president of the student body.

Thoughts she really considered behind her came floating back unbidden. For so long she tried to forgive a certain person who lived only a couple miles away, who was probably at that home right now with her own long-time boyfriend, getting ready for the holidays with her family.

No! That was something she had put behind herself. She was her own person and a successful one at that, and it had nothing to do with Kim Possible or Ron Stoppable. They no longer figured in her life and could no longer stand in the way of her being the best, being the top of the heap and being what the rest of the Rockwallers thought she should aspire to,

"Donnie! DONNIE!" Mrs. Rockwaller stood in the foyer, cupping her hand over her mouth as she shouted.

A voice drifted down the stairs. "What is it, Ronnie? Don't you know I'm trying to get some sleep up here?"

"Donnie, your daughter is home, and she brought a friend!" She made no move toward the staircase, instead holding her own in the foyer, blocking the other two from getting any further into the house."

"What, another one?"

"No, Donnie! It's Bon-Bon!

There was a long pause. "Did she bring somebody home from school?"

"Yes! Don, get your butt down here and say hello!"

"Not now, Ronnie. I'm in my boxers and I'm in bed. Maybe you haven't noticed, but I work for a living!"

"You haven't been to the site for two days!" She suddenly switched to a much softer voice. "My Donnie works with construction contractors, Merv, but all he does is stand around and read plans while other people do the work. I can't complain, he does bring home enough money."

"Do you know how late it is, Ronnie? Just say hello for me and tuck them into bed. I'll speak to them in the morning. Love you, Bon-Bon!" He added, before going completely silent, apparently trying to go back to sleep.

"Never mind him, Merv. He claims he's dead-tired all the time and once he goes upstairs to lie down, he won't come down for love or money. Can I get you anything? A nice hot drink? Some egg-nog?" She looked up at him, considering his faint whiskers. "You old enough to drink? You like a beer or something?"

"No thanks, Mrs. Rockwaller. It's been a long drive and like your husband, I think it's well past time we got a little rest."

She patted him on his lower shoulder, a move that seemed more like she was patting him on the head, though she couldn't easily reach that without looking silly. "Now, don't try going to bed without having a little something. Driving all day can really take the fluids out of you, and that goes for you too, Bon-Bon, knowing how many times I'm sure you made him stop along the way."

"Mother." Bonnie growled, her arms still pointed straight at the ground.

"Oh, you should have seen her when she was smaller, Merv. Connie and Lonnie had enough sense, but she would drink everything she could get her hands on, and before you knew it, she was begging Donnie to pull over somewhere so she could pee."

"Mother, Connie and Lonnie were giving me those drinks so they could make fun of me when I needed to stop."

"Oh, come on now, Bon-Bon. Your sisters love you and they would never do something so nasty. Now, why don't I make some Russian Tea for the two of you so you can sleep soundly. You two just go on to your room and I'll be up in a couple minutes with the tea."

Mervin growled through clenched teeth. "I swear, Bonnie, I love you like nothing, but if that woman calls me Merv one more time…"

"Cool it, _Merv._ Mother is one of those people put on this earth who can't possibly use somebody's whole name. Even daddy gave up trying to correct her a long time ago, even though all his friends call him 'Donald.'"

"Well, it's not my name, Mervin is. I put up with you calling me that _sometimes_ because it's a term of endearment between us. Your mother is either too lazy…"

"I think you'd better be quiet before you put that size thirteen in your mouth, or I put a size six and a half someplace really uncomfortable. We're talking about my mother here." She grabbed her own bags and started up the stairs.

"Well, there's a little thing called respect. Nicknames are something you use with people you know, and your mother does not know me."

"You don't know the half of it." She muttered as she turned the knob to her room.

All the old furniture was still there, though there was very little on any of it except for the bed-covers. The phone was nowhere to be seen, nor were her boy-band posters, or the professionally done 'model shot' of her that once hung on one wall. The whole room looked like a museum exhibit of almost any teen, without actually having been lived in.

Throwing her bags on the bare counter, she noticed there was one furnishing remaining. It stared back at her like a sort of accusation. It was another reminder of the life she thought she left behind.

It was made of cut glass, and actually would have cost a pretty penny if she hadn't picked it up at a yard sale when she was sixteen. It was something she kept carefully hidden in her dresser drawer until she turned eighteen, not wanting her parents to know she was following her mother and her sister's examples.

The ash tray was perfectly clean, except for a tiny bit of dust in the crevices. It stood there in mute testament to a nasty habit she thought she had left behind.

What was worse, looking at it, she suddenly had a craving for a cigarette, something that hadn't happened in far more than a year, something she had not felt since she first hooked up with Mervin, when her life seemingly turned around.

Oh, this was great. She was feeling tiny, belittled and wanted to smoke without anyone saying much at all to her. It just wasn't fair.

That was why she didn't want to come home – at all.

They waited until her mother brought them each a steaming cup of tea before they changed for bed. She immediately realized there was no way Mervin was going to be able to sleep comfortably, since his feet were sticking out the end of the bed.

Remarkably, he drifted quickly off to sleep, obviously exhausted by the days trials, despite the mild dose of caffeine in the drink.

Bonnie wished she was that lucky. She tried nestling her head on Mervin's shoulder, but couldn't get her eyes to close.

The next day, she was going to have to plaster a fake 'holiday cheer' face on…

…and deal with her whole family.

That thought was on her mind as she finally drifted off herself, dreaming of their nice comfortable bed back in Go City.

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Bonnie Rockwaller, Mego and all characters from Kim Possible © Disney


	4. Chapter 4 The Onnie Factor

**Meet the Rockwallers**

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Chapter : 4

The "Onnie" Factor

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Mervin was still dead tired when he woke up that morning. Driving cross-country, no matter how nice the company, was not something he enjoyed. In fact, if Bonnie hadn't insisted, he wouldn't have done it at all. The last time he had been to Middleton, it was in the supersonic Go Jet, which didn't exactly give him an appreciation for how far apart the two cities actually were.

Despite his fatigue, he really didn't want to go back to sleep. Occasionally Bonnie would try to get him to sleep in when they didn't have classes to go to, but that was when she was awake as well and could provide reasons for him to stay in bed, like cuddling, or just talking…

Instead, she was sound asleep. Uncomfortable as she was coming home, there was something about sleeping in her 'own' bed again that, when combined with her own tiredness, knocked her out pretty well.

She didn't stir at all when he got up and slipped back into his jeans and sweater. Sitting on the end of her bed, he considered her room for a bit, then turned his attention back to his sleeping girlfriend.

If he hadn't been able to see her there, her arms tucked under he pillow and a soft, genuine smile on her face, he would never have thought a room like that could ever be hers. Of course, she had put her stamp on their room back in Go City, but, while it was feminine, it was thoroughly modern and sophisticated, where her childhood room was…well…girly.

He liked watching her sleep. That was his little secret, and so far she hadn't caught him at it, not that there was really anything to be embarrassed about. It was the one time he could actually look at her and see her for what he had come to learn she really was. The only drawback was that he couldn't see her beautiful aquamarine eyes. He knew, though, that before long she would wake, and the pleasant expression would vanish from her face, replaced with hooded eyes and little bags that would remain there until she had her morning coffee, and sometimes long afterward.

Bonnie was definitely not a morning person.

That was one of the big differences between the two young lovers. For as long as he could remember, Mervin was up and ready to go first thing in the morning. That was one of the few things his older brother would routinely praise him for. Granted, Hego acted as if he never slept at all, preferring to be at the monitors in the Go Tower first thing every morning, his uniform neat, his mask and cowl up. All three younger brothers, and even their sister when she was still around, never quite got the purpose of that, considering each one of them had the quick-change technique down.

Thinking of his brother reminded Mervin about one thing. He checked his watch, making sure it still had a full charge on it. With it, he looked like an ordinary tall skinny man in his early twenties. Normally, he didn't wear it to bed, preferring his normal appearance in his own home, but with the thought that any one of his beloved's family walking in the room at any time, he did not want to have to launch into an explanation of why his skin was light purple and his hair the color of dark red wine.

It didn't take long for him to start getting bored. The room wasn't all that big and it was just so…pink. Somehow it almost reminded him of the first time he saw his quarters in the Go Tower. Whoever furnished that place thought it would be a smashing idea to decorate each of their rooms in their signature power colors. That would have been fine if he wasn't the one with the purple glow, though it took well into his teens to get enough of his own stuff to redecorate to the point he wasn't surrounded with the color all the time. It was bad enough being a light shade of violet himself.

With a quick check in the mirror to make sure his bed-head wasn't too heinous, he quietly tip-toed to the door. Fortunately, the whole house was carpeted wall-to-wall, so he didn't have any real problems keeping reasonably quiet. There wasn't much danger of wakening Bonnie, but he had no idea if the rest of the Rockwallers were light sleepers, and since it was only about six-thirty, he figured most of them would still be down, especially since he hadn't heard any indication that anyone was up and about yet.

The house seemed fairly solid. That seemed to make sense, as her father was a well known building contractor. It stood to reason the rather modest home would be well built, though it was a bit smaller than the older, slightly creakier home he occupied. It dawned on him that they might not appreciate a stranger snooping around in his bare feet, but Bonnie did tell him that his sisters were known for having their boyfriends over for the night almost constantly. At least he had the decency to put his street clothes back on.

He was wrong about nobody being up. When he turned the corner downstairs toward the modest little kitchen, he spotted somebody sitting at the table. At first he couldn't tell who it was, as there was a local copy of the _Examiner_ blocking his view, but that changed quickly.

The paper drooped, and a large man he had not met before regarded him over a pair of half-round reading glasses. To say he was large was an understatement. In fact, as far as body mass was concerned, he could probably give Hego a run for his money, though he was clearly somewhat older. His hair was just as black as his brothers, though it was graying slightly at the temples.

Mervin made a quick assumption that he was being visually apprised by none other than Donald Rockwaller, the owner of the voice coming from upstairs the night before.

"Okay, so which one are you?" He asked, using a voice that was surprisingly softer than Mervin had last heard.

"Uh, good morning, sir. My name's Mervin Godfrey…I came in last night with Bonnie."

The big man just grunted and flipped the paper back up. Mervin just stood there a few moments, wondering what else he should say to his girlfriend's father. The thought occurred to him that he had just spent the night, in the room of the daughter of a very large man, one he had never laid eyes on or had spoken to before, and that it was probably pretty common knowledge in that household that, unlike their night in that room, the two of them had somewhat more to do when they got into their bedroom.

The top of the paper drooped again and Donnie Rockwaller gave him a look that seemed to ask _are you still here?_ Instead, he looked down at the half-folded paper. "So, how was the drive from Go City?"

"It was pretty long, sir. I'm not used to driving that much, I tend to fly when I go on a long trip."

"Hmmm. I can imagine. Haven't been to Go City much." He looked up at the young man. "Son, you can relax. I'm not going to break you in two for sleeping with my little girl. Besides, I like you. You're the first one of my daughters' boyfriends to actually call me sir."

Mervin's heart almost jumped clear out of his chest at the mention of sleeping with Bonnie. True, he had mentioned an act of violence in relation to it, even though it was couched in the negative, but what surprised him the most was the nonchalance the man spoke with. It slowly started dawning on him that he was speaking to a man who lived in a house full of women, grown women who very likely had been running rough-shod over him for the last couple decades. It was almost as if he was resigned to something he never thought he would have to deal with.

Donnie Rockwaller folded the paper and carefully set it aside on the table before clasping his hands on the table. "So, I'm willing to guess you don't like being called 'Merv?'"

"No sir. I've never been one to use nicknames, so it's a little irritating when people use them on me."

"Uh huh, then what do you call my Bon-bon?"

"Uh, I call her Bonnie. I know her middle name kind of bugs her, so I don't mention it."

"Mervin, Bon-bon doesn't actually have a middle name. Her first name is actually Bonnedelia. She's the one who breaks it into two names, so she can drop the last part."

"I…didn't know that. It's a pretty name."

"I'm glad you think so. It's my grandmother's name. Now, given you've got this…_thing_ about nicknames, have you noticed anything about my family?"

"Uh…" He hesitated a moment, sensing a trap. "I know her sister's names sound a lot like hers."

"Yep, and it's not just the girls. Everyone in this house, excepting the random boyfriend traipsing through here at all hours, has the Rockwaller "Onnie." Connie, Lonnie, Bonnie, Ronnie…even I get called Donnie in my own house, though I prefer my friends just call me Don."

"Uh, yes sir." He made a mental note that, until he was told specifically otherwise, he was going to call the man 'Mr. Rockwaller,' and even then he was probably going to stick with that, just to be on the safe side.

"It's really interesting somebody who doesn't like nicknames would end up with my Bon-bon." He regarded the younger man again, looking him up and down his slender frame. "You're not exactly what I expected, after all that time Bon-bon spent with that Flagg boy. You don't play sports, do you, son?"

"No sir…well, not exactly. When I was in middle school I played soccer for a bit, but only on a club team, never with the school."

Donnie grunted and took a drink from an enormous mug of coffee. "Sports are good for a young man. Builds character, I think. Looks like it's a good thing you didn't play football. I've seen the GCU team on TV, those guys would likely snap you like a dry twig."

Mervin bit his upper lip. That was the second time in their short conversation the large man had mentioned dividing him into two parts. It was starting to dawn on him that maybe taking the guest room might have been the wiser choice.

Bonnie's father looked like he was going to pick up his paper again, then apparently changed his mind. "So, what do you do for a living?"

"Me? I'm actually still a full-time student. I'm a senior at GCU, majoring in Criminal Psychology."

"Oh, you planning on going into law enforcement?" He raised an eyebrow, but otherwise still regarded Mervin with a stony glare.

"Something like that." He almost gulped. How was he supposed to explain to the man he was actually part of a team of superheroes?

"I hope you know what you're getting into. Connie dated a cop for a while, and let me tell you, it made her a nervous wreck, wondering if he was actually coming home to her every night. You almost couldn't live with the poor girl."

Mervin bit his tongue, hard. From everything he had gathered listening to Bonnie, it was nearly impossible living with either of her sisters. He couldn't imagine it actually getting worse.

"This place you live, it's not a dorm, I take it, since every school I've ever known frowns on letting couples live together in them."

"No sir, we have a house."

"A house? I take it then that your family is independently wealthy?"

"Technically speaking, my brothers and I all own the house together. We inherited it when our parents passed away. Besides that, I do have a part-time job that helps pay the bills." Even after all his years, he wasn't sure where the living stipend they were paid came from…or who was actually footing the bill for thing like the Go Tower and the Go Jet.

"I'm sure your prospects will be better once you graduate. It's funny, maybe I should thank you for giving my little girl a place to live. The dorm she was living in the first year was almost as bad as the expenses after the academic scholarship she is on." He shot him another glance that seemed to say he didn't totally approve of his child's living arrangements.

"I'll do my best by your daughter, sir."

Donnie regarded him with an arched eyebrow once more. "Just what exactly are your intentions for my daughter? I don't mean what you intend when you go back home to the big city, I mean down the road?"

"I love Bonnie, sir…"

He waved his hand at him. Mervin noted the hand was larger than his, and had the appearance of being made more out of leather than of flesh. "That's not what I mean, son. I have no doubt you think you love her now, but you're still just a kid, and so is she. Sure the bedroom can be exciting, but I'm talking about your lives. I like you so far, but I want my little Bon-bon to be happy. I've already had to deal with the fallout from when that Flagg boy up and dumped her, as well as the crap I had to endure when Connie and Lonnie broke up with one of their boyfriends, but you're in a much more delicate position than any one of them. I can take them bringing these guys over from time to time. They're grown women, but you've taken it one step further. You're living together, and from the sound of things, you're living large in your own home, regardless of whether your brothers' names are on the title. If you screw this up, the damage is going to be pretty bad." He gave Mervin the first truly dangerous look he had seen. "I don't like bad where my little girls are concerned."

"Sir, it really does matter that I love Bonnie. I know we're just, as you put it, kids, but in the time I've been with her I can't imagine life without her."

"Are you going to propose?"

"I…uh…well…eventually, I guess. I don't think anything like that is going to happen at least until I graduate."

Donnie sat back, crossing his arms. "Yet the two of you are living together like you're married anyway. What's the holdup? You're not afraid of commitment, are you?" He shot Mervin that dangerous look again.

Mervin was about to tell him that he did indeed plan on popping the question right after grad, but all he could do was make his mouth work up and down for a moment. He had to wonder, why was he so frightened? If nothing else, he could always shrink down and get away, and if it came to it, his power did have a few offensive capabilities. Still, he was far more afraid of the man sitting at the breakfast table than he was of a whole room full of goons.

He suddenly found himself wanting to be back in his car, putting the small city behind him, back to his life as a college student and part-time hero. In fact, he came a heartbeat away from doing that when a light touch brought him back to his senses.

"Morning, sweetie." Bonnie put a hand on his cheek and leaned over, kissing him warmly on the lips. "I see you've met Daddy."

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Bonnie Rockwaller, Mego and all characters from Kim Possible © Disney


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